


Both Your Heart and Mine

by pathstotread



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Royalty, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-23
Updated: 2013-07-23
Packaged: 2017-12-21 02:09:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/894556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pathstotread/pseuds/pathstotread
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"He was here, and he was hers, and that was stronger than any vow spoken before the public could ever be." Written for the prompt "queen & huntsman" at the Mako/Raleigh ficathon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Both Your Heart and Mine

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lissomelle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lissomelle/gifts).



> lissomelle prompted "queen & huntsman" at the [Mako/Raleigh ficathon](http://lissomelle.livejournal.com/134358.html?thread=933334#t933334), and I have a) way too many feelings about Snow White and the Huntsman and b) WAAAAAAY too many feelings about Mako and Raleigh. So. This happened. Sorry. I guess.

It had been a long day, long and frustrating for any number of reasons.

Of course, there were the never-ending stream of her people that populated every public court day, bringing cases of theft and poverty and day-to-day crises that needed assistance from the crown. Much as she loved the people of her court, a full day of that would be enough to weary even the most stalwart leader. Her father had handled such struggles gracefully. Most days, she felt lucky to muddle through with her dignity intact.

Secondly, the weather was dreadful, which never failed to put her in a foul temper. It had been raining and storming since sunup, which she knew would impede travel for anyone coming to and from the palace.

And that, indeed, led to the most frustrating part of her day. Her party from the west had not returned, though their letter had promised their arrival three days prior. She knew they were likely holed up in an inn along the road, waiting out the weather, but that knowledge did not make her day any brighter.

When the time finally came to retire for the evening, Mako slumped in a very un-queenly fashion in the chair in front of her vanity, losing herself to the sound of the rain while her maid lit a fire in the grate.

A knock at the door had her lifting her head sharply. Lisette cracked it open, something on the other side causing her face to curve into a small smile.

"Your Majesty," she said, turning to Mako. "It appears your westerners have returned." She widened the opening of the door and Raleigh stepped through, long and lean and smelling of rain. He strode across the room and kneeled before Mako.

"Your Majesty," he echoed, bowing his head.

"Huntsman," she acknowledged, fighting the grin threatening to break open on her face. "Lisette," Mako said softly. "That will be all."

In any other company there would be cries of impropriety, but Lisette merely grinned, dropped a small curtsey, and exited the room. She was accustomed to such impropriety by now, and she'd proven herself capable of keeping secrets.

At the report of the door meeting the casing, Raleigh lifted his head. "My Queen," he said simply, reaching for her hand and pressing his lips to her knuckles.

Mako had never asked for a vow of fealty from him. Her father had trusted him, calling him the best hunter in Jaeger and recruiting him personally when the War of the Kaiju had been at its peak. Any person to whom Stacker of the House Pentecost gave his trust was a person she trusted without question, and that was that.

But when Raleigh had stepped into her father's tent on the battlefield three years past and knelt before her in greeting, a week's growth of beard on his face and his swords still strapped to his back, she'd experienced the most curious pull that had nothing to do with King Stacker's loyalty. He'd lifted his striking blue eyes to meet hers, and something in the back of her head had whispered _this one. This one is mine, and I'm his._

And so it was. He'd stood by her, fighting at her side through the battle that claimed the life of her father, as true a parent to her as she'd ever known. As she'd sat silent and white-knuckled through the sleepless nights that followed, Raleigh had held her and shared the story of the brother he'd lost, offering himself as a vessel for the grief that still, on occasion, seemed without end. When she'd ascended to the throne, terrified of failing the people that were hers by bond if not by birth, he'd been there at the foot of the dais, lending her his calm, steadfast support. He'd never left her side for more than a month at a time since the day they met, and she never worried he would. He was here, and he was hers, and that was stronger than any vow spoken before the public could ever be.

"What news, Huntsman?" she asked him now, the light touch of her fingers on his cheek belying the royal arch of her voice.

He turned his face into her hand with eyes closed, nuzzling against her touch in a way that was entirely too endearing. "The western border is quiet, for now. We would have returned sooner, but one of the villages was rebuilding from a fire they'd had some weeks ago. We stayed to help." Opening his eyes and raising them to her, his face slid into a weary, yet devastating grin. "God, you're a beautiful sight."

Mako felt her face flush. "I missed you, too," she murmured, because she _had_ , and she'd learned long ago that there was no use hiding anything from Raleigh. She ran her fingers through his sun-streaked hair, which was long overdue for a trim.

Raleigh splayed his hand across her back, nudging her forward until their faces were inches apart. "All due respect, my Queen...care to prove that?"

She leaned into him, smiling as their mouths met and feeling more at home than she had in weeks. Tangling his hand in the hair at the nape of her neck, he kissed his way across her eyelids, down her cheek, nipping slightly at her jaw before thoroughly kissing her mouth again. It was as if he couldn't decide which part of her face he'd missed most, a feeling she understood all too well.

"Come here," he said as he rose to his feet, lifting her to hers and turning her to face the looking glass. His fingers began working at the buttons along the column of her spine, leaving echoes of heat everywhere he touched. When she reached up to remove the thin coronet she'd worn in court all day, his hand alighted on her wrist. "Wait," he said huskily. "Does it pain you?"

Bemused, she shook her head.

Raleigh's eyes glinted in the looking glass with an expression that could only be described as wicked. "Leave it on, then. If you please."

Her stomach fluttered with anticipation. She watched in the looking glass as he smoothed her dress down over her arms, kissing lightly on the side of her neck as the fabric fell to the floor. He began loosening her stays and she breathed deeply in relief. Turning her head, she nuzzled at the underside of his jaw as a _thank you_.

When she was left in her shift and slippers, she turned her body around fully and went up on her tiptoes to kiss him, her hands reaching for the tails of his shirt. He obliged her, lifting his arms above his head so she could draw the fabric up and over, her clothed chest rubbing against his bare one in a way that was utterly maddening. But when she reached for the fall of his trousers, he shook his head and said "my Queen, allow me."

Hands on her sides, he lowered her back to the upholstered chair where he'd found her, kneeling to the floor as he did so. "Do you know, it's blasted cold on the western border," he said conversationally, lifting one of her feet from the floor and sliding her slipper off.

"So I've heard," she said archly.

"The days are busy enough, but the nights -" He gave a mock shudder, reaching for the other foot and giving that slipper the same treatment. "But one night about a week ago, I had a dream that looked remarkably like this. Of you, just like this." He slid his hands up underneath her shift, skimming his fingers over her calves and up toward her knees. "And I don't mind saying, that night I wasn't cold at all."

"Would you believe," she said breathlessly as he continued rucking the fabric of her shift higher on her legs, "that I've had the exact same dream?"

"Uncanny," he said, nudging her knees wider apart.

"Only mine was without the crown."

Settling his large hands firmly on her hips, he smirked up at her as he pulled her hips closer to the edge of the chair. "The crown," he insisted, "is the best part."

And then he bent his head and she found she couldn't speak for several moments in a row.

When he'd left her gasping and shuddering, his hands the only thing keeping her from sliding to the floor, she reached blindly for him and said "I need you." He rose and locked her legs around his waist, carrying her to the bed with his mouth fused to hers. They knelt on the bed together, fumbling out of the rest of their clothing. She left the coronet on, because he liked it and she loved him.

Raleigh sprawled back against the pillows, taking himself in hand and watching her with hooded eyes as she crawled to straddle him. "Will this do?" she asked nonchalantly, knowing full well he liked it best when she was on top.

"Whatever Her Majesty commands," he replied.

She sank down onto him slowly and he threw his head back, gripping her hips. "Mako," he said in a guttural voice, the first time he'd spoken her name since his return.

Mako leaned over him, her hips catching a rhythm as his mouth and hands sought every inch of her skin he could reach. He murmured her name against her skin, whispered "Mako, my love" to the hollow between her breasts, reverberating straight to her heart.

"My lord," she gasped in reply, feeling her climax build again as his fingers worked themselves between where they were joined to where she needed them. She buried her head in the juncture of his shoulder and neck, his hips snapping up to meet hers as he hoarsely shouted his release.

His arms wrapped tightly around her as they came down, breathing heavily, listening to the rain lash against the windowpane and the wind howl outside. She sought out his mouth, their kisses slow and languid now that the urgency had been abated somewhat. "My love," she murmurmed, giving the words back to him even though, from the beginning, they'd never truly needed words.

She felt his lips curve beneath hers, his heart beating a pleasant rhythm against her breast. "I told you," he said, his hand drifting leisurely up and down her back. "The crown is the best part."

_end_


End file.
